weapon system idea and questions

[Sequence]

again, Sam Barros "power labs" has both railguns and coil guns. (definately worth a look)

theres many ways you can modify the behaviour of a simple railgun to be more efficient or powerful but the main issue of all these sorts of weapons is the power density of your supply. a 50kg capacitor bank might store as much energy as the chemical energy in a small bottle of apple juice. and takes substantially longer to charge than a replacable packet of powder.

 

Yeah, I figured it wouldn't work to well. At least it kept me entertained in English class.

[Rocket Man]

a ye-olde' rifle with a blunder-bus uses caseless ammo.

i think one of the few advantages of liquid fuels is the fine mixing. yet gunpowder especially the smoke less powder is completely mixed (sometimes as a liquid) then granulised. a liquid needs quite a bit of work before it can explode, jet fuel is very volatile in a jet engine where it's quickly vapourised, compressed, mixed with air then ignited, but the same kerosene needs to be preheated etc before it will begin to burn explosively.

i think a liquid explosive brings in more problems than it's worth, high explosives give a really big bang for something that's almost inert when it's dropped or under humanly survivable temperatures.

 

i think the best way to use a liquid wouild be to use a hard parafin (ablative casing perhaps?) and inject liquid oxygen into the tip then ignite, build the whole round as a rocket. nasa has shown a lot of promise in their hybrid boosters for the new shuttle and they use a good candle wax.